New HIV vaccine trial begins in South Africa

I'm a Davos 'newbie'

Over the next few days I'll be rubbing shoulders with the world's richest and most powerful people. Maybe not so much rubbing shoulders, but at least I'll be breathing the same fresh mountain air.

I've just arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. I'm one of hundreds of journalists who are here to watch and observe the stars of the show; the billionaires, the businessmen, the billionaire businessmen and the politicians.

Before I carry on let me just come clean straight away; this is my first Davos ever. It may not sound all that embarrassing; but I literally feel like it's my first day of school. I've come to the realisation that the next few days will be a steep learning curve.

Davos, you see, is like a universe in and of itself.

For example, one of the first things that becomes blatantly obvious is that your status depends entirely on the colour of your security badge. Mine is yellow, or perhaps a bit orange-tinted, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means.

I'm guessing it screams "not all that important" for those in the know.

There are also rules of what you can film and when, how long you film, and what room you can access.... The list goes on, but luckily there seems to be plenty of security to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Speaking of which, our car ride here was more of a long and winding road than a straightforward road trip. The amount of snow in Davos this year is apparently something out of the ordinary, and I had the pleasure of driving from Zurich to here.

Needless to say perhaps, snowdrifts are few and far between in Paris and despite being Swedish my winter driving skills are a bit rusty. Hence we got stuck several times. With the help of a handful of Swiss locals we escaped without injury, perhaps just a bruised ego.

I didn't get a chance to thank them though. I didn't dare to take my feet off the gas pedal for long enough once the car actually got rolling again. So thank you Switzerland, I owe you one.